Tetrarch

I cannot recommend FH Brundle highly enough. Their custoner service is the best I have EVER come across. Not just the sales guys, but the logistics people, the delivery guys and the staff in the warehouse who allowed us inspect a product (from a high shelf) before we committed. https://www.fhbrundle.co.uk/handrailing-and-balustrade/frameless-glass-balustrade?via_sb=true My (side-mounted) internal stair balustrade is fixed to a 10mm steel plate bolted to a floor joist. The floor-mounted balustrade from FH Brundle may well do what you're looking for and at a fraction of the price Regards Tet

Thanks for the feedback. A direct feed would have been an excellent idea, but I have been in touch with Stovax, unfortunately it is not retrofittable. And 8.1kw IS big. It's that size because it fits the fireplace, not because the output is required - especially since we have sealed and heated the rest of the house! Regards Tet

Hi All, The reno is basically finished. Our Stovax Riva 66 8.1kw Wood Burner was installed in 2021 and only subsequently has the house been completely revamped and made (relatively) airtight with MVHR.... I need a final BC sign-off, but I'm thinking that we won't be complient with Part J and that we'll be looking for an open vent in order to comply. Our fireplace is actually an external brick structure affixed to the house and I am extremely loathe to punch a hole anywhere else. Part J says: "Permanently open air vents 1.10 Permanently open air vents should be non-adjustable, sized to admit sufficient air for the purpose intended and positioned where they are unlikely to become blocked. Ventilators should be installed so that building occupants are not provoked into sealing them against draughts or noise. Ventilation openings should not be made in fire-resisting walls other than external walls (although they should not penetrate those parts of external walls shielding LPG tanks). Air vents should not be located within a fireplace recess except on the basis of specialist advice." (bold mine) Where do I go to get this "specialist advice" in order to get the vent placed within the fireplace? This would very much satisfy the "not provoked" and be the shortest and most direct source of air possible. Is it just a matter of "finding" the right expert? Regards Tet

I'd agree with the "don't do it twice" advice. You state that youn can't afford to take the wall down, I assume that this means that it's structural. What you could do is to leave everything as-is but employ a builder to make a huge hole in the wall and put in a lintel (you can probably get a second-hand steel from somewhere) We had exactly the same thing done for precisely the same reasons. We had a 10ft supporting wall knocked down and a pair of 8x2's acro'd in. This "temporary" fix was supposed to be for a few months whilst our planning went through, but this eventually took three years! It did, however deliver the open-plan we were looking for and got us used to the space before the extension went on. I attach some before and after pics below: It only took a day and cost me two man-days and some timber First pic is after the floorboards were removed. Bizarrely I don't have this pic before this stage! Regards Tet

https://idsystems.co.uk/roofs/rooflights/ I was really impressed with ID Systems. We visited the factory twice and bought their beautiful Vistaline tilt-and-slide doors as well https://idsystems.co.uk/slide-and-turn-doors/ The Vistaline doors were actually the first purchase, we added three rooflights and two static windows to ensure that fit-and-finish was the same. Apologies I thought I had taken some better pictures, but all the ground floor windows are ID Regards Tet

I've got 6 sq m of rooflights and MVHR. I haven't yet gone through a summer, so time will tell, but I've noticed that the MVHR is very good about maintaining fresh air throughout the whole house. We went for (quite expensive) sealed unit rooflights that "drop over" our timber upstands. They make a great seal and then the only join that matters is where the upstands poke through the roof material. In our case it's a rubber roof so I was massively obsessed with the way that these were constructed. I'll open our patio doors if things get too hot! Regards Tet

Just an personal observation. Opening veluxes to allow accumulated heat to dissipate seems to be an expensive and inefficient method (though aestetically I love the idea!). Have you considered some kind of mechanical ventilation as an alternative? You don't need MVHR as your use-case seems to be a solution to insolation so a simple extractor fan set at the highest ceiling point would achieve the same result - and a lot more quickly Regards Tet

I specified shadow gaps in our refurb but actually moved away from the idea for a couple of reasons: Effectively "removing" the layer of plasterboard would expose the steel frame and void that would compromise the internal insulation and make airthightedness more difficult to achieve. Good though my plasterer was, shadow gaps are extremely difficult to get perfect and any discrepancy would stick out (as previously noted) Getting a really good intersection around door frames would be a challenge and would likely place for cracking in the future I went with a "shadow gap" architrave, which I am satisfied with, the bonus is that using the same profile with thicker architrave made decorating exceptionally easy Regards Tet

We had 110 sq m of Amtico laid, it took 30 bags of Mapei Self-levelling Compound to get a finish. My Amtico guy was a joy to watch, it was a privilege to watch him work After the SLC he was meticulous going across the whole floor looking for any bubbles or imperfections that he sanded out. He used a primer to key the surface. As a tip for the install, he laid down every plank dry and marked where they would land. He worked in about 12-plank increments. He obviously knew exactly how much adhesive he could manage and he spread it out to the markings. The thing that surprised me most was that he also trimmed back the underside of the leading edge of every single plank to ensure that there was a perfect join. I cannot find fault with anything he's done I have done amticof mysel in a small bathroom. I did an OK job with the planks but failed to prep my plywood properly and ended up with a a small bump where the planks butted each other. That house is now someone else's problem but I wish that I'd had a pro do it Regards Tet

Our porcelain tiles are still in the process of being installed. They are not at all slippery when wet, but as we may have been a bit conservative with the fall, the ice is quite treacherous. I can see that they will get dirty easily (even when the building site transfer is gone), but pressure washing little and often is my plan. I have a load of broken slate left over from my roof, the plan is to use that in the French Drain around the building Regards Tet

We had our silicone rendering start just above the DPC. We still don't know whether to paint the lower plain-rendered parts black or the same colour as the textuered silicone-rendered part We're still not finished yet Regards Tet

I see you're in a fictional town in Kent. It really can depend on your LA (and if you're in Sevenoaks then buckle up). We had a three year fight with ours but all's well that ends well... We are in GB and the rule that our LA used was a 50% uplift from the 1948 footprint. Our initial plan was rejected because it was too much of an uplift ~28 sq m After a failed appeal we applied for a really ugly PD plan with an uplift of 31 sq m that was duly approved We then reapplied with a (slightly different) 28 sq m extension using "less harmful to GB than PD" as our Special Circumstance that was duly approved It can be done, but be prepared for a fight. Regards Tet

I'm no cook, but Mrs Tet LOVES her Neff Induction with the afore-mentioned puck control. The combination of something more positive and tactile with the ability to remove it completely for cleaning make it a great option Regards Tet

I'm not suggesting that roofs "snap in half". I would expect that boats are made to a higher standard and using better materials than an average roof. My (admittedly limited) experience is that that formed overhangs of GRP roofs become brittle after exposure to sunlight and weather. I've not seen a problem with damp penetrating a sheet of GRP but I have experienced two occasions (one is a commercial property I am responsible for and once in my own home) where a formed GRP edging cracked and split (in my own home less than 3 years) and allowed water to penetrate and rot the sub decking from the edge inwards. On the commercial property an old (15 year) seam in a GRP roof also failed Regards Tet

I'm not a fan of GRP. My main gripe is photostability. In my (limited) experience GRP tends towards brittleness as it ages. Regards Tet